Rakuten, Japan’s number one online shopping mall, has arrived in Singapore! To celebrate the launch in Singapore, the online shopping mall is having a three-day public extravaganza at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza from today till Sunday (28 March – 30 March 2014, 11am – 10pm daily).

The Singapore site currently features 150 Japanese and local merchants with approximately 100,000 products across more than ten categories including fashion, food, health and beauty products, electronics, kids’ and babies’ products, toys and games, livingware, furniture and decoration, books, pet products, and vehicle accessories.

During the three-day “Rakuten Super Bag” extravaganza, members of the public can experience showcase of more than 300 products from Rakuten’s top merchants. There will also be Japanese culinary demonstrations by celebrities Paul Foster and Keagan Kang (March 28, 6.30pm), Michelle Chia (March 29, 5.30pm) and Wong Lilin (March 30, 2.30pm), together with a chef from merchant Kuriya Fish Market

HTC unveiled some accessories together with their flagship HTC One (M8). One of the most eye catching accessory is the Dot View Case. The innovative case gives user a fun and retro looking dot matrix view of the HTC One (M8) right on the cover.

The case protects both the front and back of the phone and at the same time let user see calls, texts or weather without the need to open the cover. The Dot View Case uses magnets on the side to let the phone know that the cover is closed. When you double tab the cover, it instantly display the time and weather in dot matrix view. I don’t know about you but I love this simple and elegant design.

HTC just announced their new flagship phone and I’m fortunate to have a sneak peak at this beauty one week before it was officially announced.

The HTC One (M8) feels good in the hand. It has a new full metal body that is ergonomic and comfortable to hold. The ful metal body and glass sandwiched together gives the phone a strong construction. And most importantly, the back looks beautiful with premium jewelry grade finish and fine hairline brush. It has a beautiful 5 inch 1080p screen with Gorilla Glass 3.

The HTC One (M8) comes in 16GB and 32GB version with expandable microSD storage that supports the latest 128GB microSD card. And even though the new HTC One (M8) no longer comes with Beats Audio, the sound quality is still impressive. The brand new speaker system and amplifiers is able to produce 25% louder and clearer sound. And yes, the speakers are front facing, just like the HTC One.

The HTC One (M8) comes with a 2600 mAh battery with quick charging that charges 80% in 1 hour. According to HTC, the new HTC One (M8) has 40% longer battery life compared to the HTC One.

The HTC One (M8) also comes with the new redesigned HTC Sense 6. I’m always a fan of HTC Sense UI. The new Sense 6 comes with new colour code for easy navigation. One interesting feature is the Motion Launch. When the phone screen is off, a simple double tap on the screen to turn on the phone. Swipe up to go to the last app, down for voice dialing, left for widget screen or right for BlinkFeed. It’s dead simple and convenient.

And perhaps the most interesting feature of the HTC One (M8) is the new UltraPixel Camera. According to HTC, the new camera is able to capture 300% more light to give you great picture under any condition. The HTC One (M8) is also the first smartphone with duo camera for depth capture. The 2 camera allows the phone to detect and separate subjects, foreground and background. This gives the HTC One (M8) ability to shoot first and select the focus point later. It’s not light field technology like the Lytro camera but it produce almost similar results. The duo camera also allows interesting post editing like changing the background of an image to highlight the foreground. These features are cool to have. But if you don’t need them, the HTC One (M8) camera can still take normal pictures like any other camera phone.

And since selfie has become a big thing recently, HTC added a wide angle 5 megapixel f2.0 front facing camera to the HTC One (M8). Cool.

The new HTC One (M8) comes in Gunmetal Gray and Glacial Silver colour and will be available in Singapore from the first week of April. If you are looking for an Android phone, look no further. This is the One.

As part of its Play It Safe Day campaign, Microsoft has released a new joint study conducted by IDC and the National University of Singapore, which revealed that enterprises worldwide are expected to spend nearly US$500 billion (S$635 billion) in 2014 to deal with issues caused by malware deliberately loaded onto pirated software — US$127 billion dealing with security issues and US$364 billion dealing with data breaches. Global consumers, on the other hand, are expected to spend US$25 billion and waste 1.2 billion hours this year because of security threats and costly computer fixes stemming from malware on pirated software.

Globally, the greatest fears from infected software by consumers are the loss of data, files or personal information (60 percent), unauthorized Internet transactions (51 percent) and hijacking of email, social networking and bank accounts (50 percent).

This was consistent with the results amongst Singapore consumers surveyed who displayed an even greater concern in these areas. For local consumers, the greatest fears from infected sofeware are loss of data, files or personal information (65 percent), followed by unauthorized Internet transactions (64 percent) and hijacking of email, social networking and bank accounts (61 percent).

Logitech recently organised a free gaming event with the support of Colosseum and Insidious Gaming to promote and strengthen the gaming culture in Singapore.

The main highlight was a DOTA 2 tournament, which pitted eight teams of five players against each other in under a variant tournament rule set. The participating teams were a mix of both experienced and casual gamers. After three competitive rounds, Team Mark emerged as the winner, taking home the bragging rights and Logitech G products.

In addition to the DOTA 2 tournament, there was a variety of gaming booths set up for the attendees. The gaming booths included the classic Donkey Kong and a mouse clicking game which tested the gamers’ reflexes. The game scores were shared on a live scoreboard for players to challenge one another. The event was a great way for gamers to just get together to have fun. It also served as a memorable experience for many of them who were ending their school term break.